Jonathan Miller's productions have been staples on ENO's stage for a quarter of a century, but until recently it was anyone's guess whether opera's favourite curmudgeon would ever be persuaded back there to create a new one.

Perhaps it's inevitable that his serviceable new Bohème should be an anticlimax. The characters are real enough but in almost constant chiaroscuro, and facial expressions get lost. We hear Mimi and Rodolfo fall in love, but we cannot see it. It's almost as if the opera is lit with the live TV broadcast (an ENO first) in mind. Nor does an updating to the drab early 1930s shed much light, certainly not to the extent of, say, Miller's prewar Rosenkavalier.

Isabella Bywater's two-part set rotates to create three Paris locations. And what comes over strongly is the idea of the Bohemians as Withnail-style posh boys slumming it: poverty is a game, and Mimi's death is the first serious event they have had to deal with.

Debuting Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya makes the score sound shapely but too steady. Best of the young cast is Roland Wood's patrician Marcello. Alfie Boe is a likeable Rodolfo; unlike other crossover starlets, he can sing without a mic, but his decent tenor is still two sizes too small for Puccini in London's largest theatre.

As Mimi, debuting US soprano Melody Moore sings with poise, yet her death is less touching than it might be; perhaps that's an effect of the negative slant on the Mimi-Rodolfo relationship.

Maybe a more sentimental revival director will change that. After all, this production will almost certainly be back, with or without Miller.